The Human Toll

April 16, 2003

``It's the duty of the soldiers to sacrifice themselves, but it's not the duty of the innocent to die.''

Ali Abed Qassem , who lost four relatives in the bombing of a Baghdad market

Hospitals in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq are in crisis. Many of Baghdad's 33 hospitals have been emptied by looters. Some have closed down as their staffs stay home out of fear. Others are suffering shortages of electricity, water and medicine. But many hospital workers are struggling to keep medical efforts going in the city, and U.S. forces have stepped in to protect some hospitals. Above, a severely burned Iraqi man is comforted by his wife at a hospital in central Baghdad on Tuesday. At left, Issa Deli, 10, burned during bombing in the northern Iraqi town of Tikrit, lies in a local hospital Tuesday. The hospital has remained open even though it has only one doctor. Below, an Iraqi woman tries to calm her injured son, who suffered two broken legs and a broken right arm during a shooting incident in Baghdad, as he undergoes treatment at a hospital in the city.